Estimating fossil carbon contributions from chemicals and microplastics in Sweden's urban wastewater systems: A model-based approach
Journal article, 2024

The importance of including fossil carbon in greenhouse gas emission assessments from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is highlighted in the 2019 Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines revision and underpinned by an increasing number of experimental studies. The present study introduces a model-based approach to estimate fossil carbon flows within Sweden's urban wastewater system, employing data on chemical and polymeric material flows as a starting point. Our findings show that fossil carbon constitutes approximately 12–17 % of the total carbon emissions to sewer systems. This result aligns with experimental data, which shows fossil carbon contributions to WWTP influents ranging from 4 to 28 %. Our analysis further indicates that microplastics contribute about 13 % of the fossil carbon influx to Swedish WWTPs, while organic chemicals account for the remaining 83 %.

Author

Efstathios Reppas Chrysovitsinos

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Environmental Systems Analysis

Magdalena Svanström

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Environmental Systems Analysis

Gregory Peters

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Environmental Systems Analysis

Heliyon

24058440 (eISSN)

Vol. 10 18 e37665

Improved life cycle assessment modelling of fertilizers - the case of sewage sludge

Formas (942-2015-1116), 2016-01-01 -- 2019-12-31.

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Subject Categories

Earth and Related Environmental Sciences

DOI

10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e37665

PubMed

39323797

More information

Latest update

9/23/2024